Guess DBE under Vijay has mastered the art of Maskirovka, which translates to masking or camouflage in Russian. As a field craft it encompasses not just standard camouflage tactics but also encompasses deliberate misdirection and subterfuge and masking of own intentions. With the entire strength of Mughals now divided in three fronts, the East, Central and Western front it's ability to contain and counter DBE is drastically reduced. Moreover I distinctly remember Mughal Badshah's advisors have advised him that the next target would most definitely be Bengal, but now Vijay turning again towards Baluchistan, which js furthest point of the Mughal frontier, the Mughal ability to respond to crisis would be drastically reduced . What's worse his reinforcements that were designated for Western front, are focused in Immedeate vicinity of Karachi to prevent a breakthrough. If they move to counter DBE invasion of Baluchistan, then they leave a gaping hole in defense allowing DBE to broaden the beachhead established with capture of Karachi, and if they don't Baluchistan is lost for good. Similarly if he so decides to redeploy his forces from Central and Eastern fronts to West, he would weaken their defenses and would allow even defensive forces of DBE to spring a surprise and capture more territory in Central front or Eastern Front.

Oh dear, that does not sound good and protends grave danger for Dakshin Bharatiya Empire (DBE). Not only tgey now gave to contend with Mughals, and their nosy cousins Ottomans, and over zealous Safavids, but they also need to prepare for possible intervention from European powers such as The French and the British. This puts DBE under great stress with current troop levels. I sure hope DBE starts compulsory training and military service for its citizens beyond a certain age.

Ne as it may, a good development. Despite its relative simplicity in construction and inaccuracy, Hawacha was a terrifying weapon, that was capable of saturating a given area with hundreds of projectiles. While smaller Hawacha were known to have a range of about 150 meters when launched at 45 degrees angle from ground level, it could reach 350-400 meters when launched from elevated hilltop position in an downward arc. However some larger Chinese firearrow cart could throw a fire javelin at ranges of over 1,500-1,800 meters and sometimes with good weather just about breach even 2000 meters. Most importantly, logistically they were far simpler to manufacture and could be disassembled and moved easily to firing positions, only to be reassembled and fired at short notice. Chinese even had preloaded modules which could be swapped after the cart fired its ammunition loadout.

Why do the specs look earrily similar to a Chinese fire arrow wagon or a Korean Hawacha?

The thing with Guerilla Warfare is that it requires two essential things to suceed: first is the terrain advantage such as jungles or mountains for assailant, that allows him to conceal presence, to launch surprise attack and second a enemy that is cognizant of its troops well being. Here, DBE does not have such advantages against Mughals. Since a vast majority of engagements would be fought in plains its difficult to conceal presence. Secondly, Mughals have proven time and again that casualties mean nothing to them and tgey will keep feeding men to war effort. Against this backdrop, Guerilla Warfare itself cannot be the solution. Whike that dies nit mean there would be no Guerilla Warfare strikes. But those strikes would have to be choreographed as a part of larger attack in support of main DBE attacking force and Bharatiya Commandos need to synchronize ygeir attack either with assault by Marines or Army. The targets importance will also change as sometimes it is more important to interdict Mughal supply lines rager than assassinating officer cadre. That however is subjective and will vary from missions to missions .

Yes, there is. Quite an active one at at that.

It was good. We had a productive chat on more than one occasion.

The reason it was mentioned here is due to context.

I did raise it with Mithun.

Lastly dropping dynamite requires invention of TNT as a precondition. Without TNT there us no dynamite.

I did think of it, but right now DBE does not have the technology. Bedides hot air balloons are ill equipped to serve as bombers as they sre essentially left at the mercy of aur currents and cannot be freely navigated. Besides the silk or cotton cloth would need extensive treatment to make it opaque to air so that it is capable of holding hot air. They almost could serve as obversation posts to scout and provide early warning while send alerts and relay messages via heliograph .

Now that the photo telegraph code is ready, next step is to develop a Cypher. You could start off by adopting the Ottendorf Cypher or the book Cypher.

Vijay badly needs to introduce precission cap/primers.

The best way to break a deadlock between rivals that have technological parity I'd either to outnumber your enemy like Mughals or to change the rules of engagement by introducing something so radical that totally disrupts the balance of power and makes the concept of military size irrelevant. With Mughals drastically expanding their military size it's imperative that Vijay changes the game, by not only deploying rifled culverin but also adapts original Brown Bess smoothbore muskets to polygonal rifkef musket Minie Ball as ammo. That would indeed make a short work of Mughal soldiers irrespective of numbers. Apart from this he should urgently develop rifled Gatling Gun. The original version of Gatling Gun was hand cranked and would have fed musket balls enclosed in small metallic cylinders through a gravity hooper feed system. Since each barrel in the Gatling gun had its own firing pin it was tremendously robust to prevent jams due to misfire.

Specialized riverine vessels such as corvettes or Caravel which can also act as escorts and modified shallow/flat hull Dristi class Heliograph platform ship variants can also function as troop transports.

Maybe it would be a good time for DBE to introduce a new dimension to the war, by introducing a riverine naval force. They would essentially be attached to the Bharatiya Marines due to overlapping missionand would.essentially work to support Bharatiya Marines and extend logistic support to Army as it moves along rivers to capture cities . Most cities were historically built along rivers any way. These naval vessels would have to have shallower draft to be able to traverse and could incorporate some form of paddle wheel that could be powered by a Persian wheel like mechanism linked to a Sterling Cycle as advised by alpa previously on Discord worldbuild channel. They could even usebpaddle oars ro supplement sails till Sterling Engine is ready to be produced.

Glad that you not only considered my Heliograph idea, but also chose to include the metal mirrors aks "Aranmula Kannadi " as it is much more practical in case of on field deployments.

Yes..Just joined the group.

That's also the reason why Vijay needs to introduce radical technologies that he is able to produce swiftly in large volumes. That's also why I had been emphasizing development of Withworth Rifling. Since they too were casted barrels , Vijay can significantly improve the accuracy and range of his muskets with minimal change in manufacturing capabilities or tooling. Thus a musket with hexagonal barrel Withworth rifling, can be produced in vast volumes and DBE military can be outfitted with relatively modern firearms very very quickly.

Ah, but human psychology is such that, a country making rapid technology innovations will invariably trigger concerns and jealousy among other countries. Who will first try to fight individually and when they fail tgey will try to band together to take the country down, as it disturbs the strategic balance. So make no mistake, as the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire (DBE), consolidates it's rule in India, other peripheral kingdoms will invariably try to invade the country to limit its growth and capture the technology for themselves.